Gaz to Go plus Four More!

Irish midfielder Garreth O’Connor has been placed on the transfer list. Gaz only made nine appearances as a substitute in 2006/7 and was never named in the starting eleven.

Most Clarets fans will recall the best Gaz moment as the awesome direct free kick he took at Wolves away in 2005/6. That magnificent goal ensured we came away with three points from one of our bogey grounds and the 1-0 away win was even sweeter being televised by Sky.

Steve Cotterill had this to say about his transfer listed player:

‘Garreth needs to play and he has not done a lot of that this season.

‘He needs to get out there, so I had a chat with him at the end of the season and we have come to the conclusion that we would put him on the list and see what materialises.’

There was confirmatory news also of four more out-of-contract players who would be leaving:

Graham Branch

anny Coyne

ohn McGreal

rank Sinclair

Graham Branch of course, had his Testimonial match on Monday. Graham, now 35 is the club’s longest serving player with nearly 300 appearances for the Clarets. He signed from Stockport in the New Year of 1999.

The gaffer had this to day about our Di Branchio:

‘We probably knew a while ago that this was going to be Graham’s last year, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for his services, certainly over the past three years with me.

‘Graham is a great character to have in and around the place, but his playing was becoming limited and I just feel that he still has plenty in the tank to go and get himself another club for a couple of years.

‘He has been great to have around the place and I am sure we will miss him, along with the others.’

Welsh International goalkeeper, Danny Coyne has been plagued with injuries since joining the Clarets in Steve Cotterill’s first season in the Summer of 2004. He has never really managed to establish himself as the first choice goalkeeper.

The 33 year old keeper has only featured in 44 games over the last three seasons

It came as no surprise therefore to hear we would not be retaining his services.

Steve said about the news:

‘Danny also goes with my fondest wishes.

‘He has been a model professional from minute one to the final day and he has just been unfortunate with a couple of bad injuries at important times, both for him and us.

‘At other times he has not been able to force his way back into the team because of the form of Brian Jensen.

John McGreal, now 34, joined the Clarets in the close seeaon of 2004 and has made just over 100 appearances for the club.

The gaffer recalls:

‘John was my first signing and I’ll never forget that one. He was very important, not only as a player, but in enabling me to sign other players on the back of him.

‘I look back on that signing with great fondness because John has since been an excellent player for me.

‘I just felt that with time not on John’s side, we needed to try to make us younger, which I’ve tried to do for three years.

‘But John has been magnificent and I would like to think him very much for his services.’

‘But you couldn’t meet a more honest professional who holds high standards and I am sure, like the others, he will quickly go on to get himself another club.’

Frank Sinclair of course has been on loan to Huddersfield this year and it was announced at the time, that a permanaent move would be likely.

Cotterill said: ‘Frank has been a fantastic servant and we’d like to wish him all the best from everybody here.

‘He’s been magnificent from the moment he walked through the door and we will miss him because he is a great character.’